"Reliable Guidance"

“Reliable Guidance”

 

In 1960 the U.S. Navy launched Transit, a satellite system which enabled ships to fix their nautical location hourly. For the next two decades the Military developed this network, using it especially for intelligence gathering purposes. In 1983 it was first adapted for civilian applications. And by 1995 a group of 24 satellites was in place to complete the Global Positioning System (or GPS) project. With certain modifications this is the system we use today to guide us to and through unfamiliar places.

The GPS is one of those modern conveniences which we don’t want to do without (cell phones, on-demand TV, and email are a few other things in this category). Remember the days of AAA Triptiks and other paper maps? I’m still old-fashioned enough to want them (and a road atlas) close at hand for a long driving excursion as a back-up for my GPS.

In my hospice work I’m constantly punching addresses for new patients into my “trusty” Garmin. But I’ve discovered it’s not always the last word in getting me where I want to go. Sometimes it tells me to turn onto roads that don’t exist, takes me on cow paths that last received DOT attention during the Truman Administration, or leads me through the middle of cities where my level of patience is sorely tested. And when I deviate from Hortense’s (my name for this tool—don’t ask me where it came from) suggestions she gets hoarse from saying “recalculating.”

There’s another GPS which is far superior to the one described above: God’s Pathfinding System (aka the Scriptures). In Psalm 119:105 the psalmist writes, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” And God tells us through King David, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8, NKJV). To do this He has set forth principles in His Word which, when followed, assure us of success in what really matters in life (“{God’s people} delight in doing everything the Lord wants…They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper.”—Psalm 1:2-3, NLT). I want this kind of life—and as I seek reliable guidance through consulting God’s unerring GPS I can have it. And so can you. Why? “God…is faithful.” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

 

Blessings!

Jim McMillan